First cider planning

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mitchm

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Ok everyone. I just wrote out a baaaasic plan for what I want to do for my first cider brew. It might seem a little convoluted, but there's a lot that I want to try out. I was hoping someone could look it over a little and see if I'm missing anything or add in some notes. Thanks!


day 1- put 2.5g apple juice in 5g carboy.
heat 1g juice + .75lbs brown sugar
mix together in carboy, aerate
measure sg: ideal ~1.07-1.08
heat to 70* pitch yeast
airlock

day2- fermenting

day3- check sg ~1.065?? (2-3days?)
siphon

blackberry 3g (1.75g) original 5g carboy
straight 1.5g (.6 = 2x.3g) 2x1g carboy
honey 1.5g (.8= 2x.4g) 2x1g carboy

blackberry: add 3/4can blackberry preserves to carboy (ziploc fridge last 1/4),
add 1.25g apple juice.
TOTAL vol: 3g+
ferment out to 1.05 (estimated time?)
add remaining preserves
next day check SG, record, bottle
check for appropriate carbonation
stove top pasteurize
When to add pectinase????


straight: siphon .3g to (2) 1g carboy.
add .5g new apple juice to each carboy
TOTAL vol: (2) @ .8g ==1.6g
ferment out to 1.05/1.04.
Bottle @ appropriate SG (2 weeks?)
check for correct carbonation (start @ 3 days?)
stove top pasteurize

honey: siphon .4g to (2) 1g carboy
add 3 1/2C sugar + 2/3C juice to pan, carmelize gently
add to carboys, shake well
add .4g apple juice to each carboy
TOTAL vol: (2) @ .8g ==1.6g
ferment til dry (1.0) ~2-3weeks, (ice down for ~2hr to settle out more?)
xfer half one carboy to empty carboy
carmelize 500ml honey, add 1/2 to ea carboy, shake well/stir to mix
top off ea carboy, mix lightly
bottle
stovetop pasteurize immediately for still, or wait for bottle carbonation
 
Any gurus (or anyone) have thoughts about this? Am I asking for trouble doing this much on my first cider attempt?
 
Hi Mitchm,

Sounds really complicated for your first batch....you might want to stick with something simple like;

5 Gallons - 100% apple juice (pasteurized is fine, vitamin c is fine) no other ingredients. Think Treetop, Greatvalu (walmart), etc.
2 1/2 Tsp - Yeast Nutrient
1 pack Nottingham Yeast

SG should be anywhere from 1.045- 1.055 with out any extra sugars.
Target an FG of 1.01ish for a sweeter cider with an ABV of approximately 5%. Should take 8-10 days at 65 - 70 degrees.
Cold crash for 48 hours, then rack into secondary off lees.

Once you have this basic recipe down you should experiment to get the taste you are after. Adding extras sugars, honey, dextrose, etc. will increase the ABV, but will take longer to mellow out. Less added sugars means a more drinkable product sooner....mmmm

In my experience it's best to start with the basics what you described is a sure recipe for disappointment and frustration IMHO. That being said, if you go head with your original plan and it tastes great let me know!

PS - you may want to revisit those number you calculated an SG of 1.065 and an FG of 1.050 which would give you an ABV of 2%...which to quote medwayimports..."why" or more accurately "why bother". You can use brewcalcs.com to help you figure out a target ABV.

good luck!

cheers!
 
Heh, Thanks for the reply Rod. Came about a day after I did the initial pitch and everything. I know that the usual would be to start with basics and I'm heading in to this with the entire thought process of what-if and the expectation that this is going to be more or less crap.

That said, after 6 days, the initial 3g are fermenting fine with a current s.g. of 1.045. The initial plan posted above was also an incentive for me to actually start doing something (which makes me read up on it more). Hence the total inaccuracy of a goal of 1.05 final sg

One question I do have is at what point do ciders start getting dry (in terms of s.g.) You mentioned 1.01 is still fairly sweet. If I were aiming for something the sweetness of say...Mikes hard lemonade or smirnoff ice (trying to think of sweet commercial drinks) would 1.01 still cut it? Dry would start at about 1.00 and very dry around .99? Thanks for the help.
 
Lets make this more convoluted!

Part I
My original 3g (OG:1.062) started on 10/11 came out at 1.027 (4.8%ABV). Now the fun part:

Part IIa: carmel apple cider
Carmelized 3cups of white sugar and 3/4 of juice (Sprouts AJ, organic unfiltered, sg:1.050). Added to (2) 1gallon carboys each with 1/2g of juice. Total sg now: 1.072 Siphoned out (2) quantities of .4g (total .8g) of original cider. Total sg ended up at 1.051. Total volume = (2)*0.9g = 1.8g

Future plan: ferment almost dry, add carmelized honey, bottle & carb, cold crash, stove-top pasteurize
Basics taken from this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/caramel-apple-cider-235368/

Part IIb: straight up
Start out with .5g of Sprouts AJ (1.050) in (2) 1g carboys. Siphoned about .3 or .4g of the old cider (1.027, 4.8%) into each carboy for a total vol of .8-.9g. New SG is 1.038.
Plan to ferment to 1.015 or so, maybe 1.005? Maybe all the way down to .990. The sweeter things will be for others and I'll take this a little on the dry side.

Part IIc: blackberry
So there was about 1.4g of 1.027 cider left in my 5g carboy. I added 4cups of blackberry preserve from a can (details to come later) and added 2.5g AJ. 1g of Sprouts AJ and 1.5g of Hansens Natural AJ (1.046) All told, sg came out to 1.040. Will drop it down to 1.1 or so and then bottle carb and pasteurize. Will probably also end up adding some pectinase before bottling to clear it.

Cheers!!
 
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